Sweet and Deadly by Charlaine Harris

Author:Charlaine Harris [Harris, Charlaine]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2003-05-26T14:00:00+00:00

10

T HE MULTITUDE OF Monday’s revelations had worn Catherine down. She slept heavily, despite the Perkins’s coffee, and woke groggy.

Tuesday, like Monday, began off-center. She overslept by ten minutes, an irritating breach of her workday morning routine. To make up the time, she had to scramble into her clothes while the coffee was perking, and skip a cup of that coffee. She promised herself to make up for it at the office, from the big urn kept continuously filled in the production room.

The telephone rang while she was making her bed. She was back on schedule and in a better humor, so instead of assuming that the call would be dire news, she predicted some mild disturbance, which was what it proved to be.

“My damn car’s in the shop,” Tom said without preamble. “Can you give me a ride to work?”

“Sure, come on over,” Catherine replied promptly.

This had happened before. Tom’s ancient Volkswagen, noisy and battle-scarred, was subject to drastic breakdowns and expensive repairs.

Catherine was at the back door to let him in when he knocked.

“I was just about ready to leave, I’m glad you caught me,” she said, checking her purse to make sure she had her keys.

“No telling how much it’s going to cost this time,” Tom said gloomily. “I took it over to Don’s Garage after work yesterday, and he said he’d bring it by this morning. Said it was nothing hard to fix, he could do it in a couple of hours.”

“That’s what Don always says,” Catherine told him.

“Why?” asked Tom, outraged. “If he had just told me he’d have to keep it, I could have called you last night.”

“He just likes people to leave happy,” Catherine said. “That’s the way Don is. I’m surprised you hadn’t caught on to that by now, as much trouble as you’ve had with that car.

“At least,” she added as they walked to her garage, “it’ll be fixed when you do get it back.”

“I have plans for tonight, so he better get his ass in gear,” Tom said, folding himself into Catherine’s front seat. She wondered, not for the first time, how he managed in the Volkswagen.

“I doubt he will,” Catherine warned.

Tom sulked all the way to the office. That was fine with Catherine, who didn’t feel like idle chatter before nine o’clock at the earliest.

Leila was looking out the front window when Catherine pulled into a parking space miraculously open in front of the Gazette office. Usually the courthouse people took all the good spots, arriving early to stake their claims. Her little triumph dissolved into a flat feeling when she saw Leila’s face become woebe-gone at the sight of the two of them arriving together.

By the time Catherine and Tom came in through the glass door that had “Lowfield Gazette” stenciled across it in gothic lettering, Leila was sitting rigidly erect at her typewriter behind the counter, pounding the keys furiously.

What a temper she’s got, Catherine thought, passing through the little reception room without a word. She wanted to go up to Leila and shake her by the shoulders.

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